Baby Face
by FanWriterWV
Summary: Bloomington, Indiana, 20 October 1973. Sam leaps into a newborn infant and discovers that size really doesn't matter when family is at stake.


BABY FACE

_**BABY FACE**_

Sam felt the blue light leave him. He opened his eyes and saw that he was lying on his back. He tried to sit up, but for some reason he could only roll over on his side. When he did so, he was startled to see a row of bars. But they weren't the bars of a jail cell, as Sam discovered when he looked at the "Floor." It was made of brightly colored cloth. Then he noticed something else-he was wearing a large diaper. Except, as things became clearer, he saw that it wasn't the diaper that was large-it was he who had become small. Very small, in fact, as he felt two large male hands lift him out of what Sam now saw was a baby's crib. A giant face swam into view, and Sam involuntarily cried out. What he heard, however, was an infant's wail.

The man holding him frowned in disgust as he wrinkled his nose and looked away. "Judy! I think the kid crapped in his drawers again!" He chuckled, not nicely, and Sam could smell beer on his breath. Sam felt like coughing at the combined stench of bad breath and alcohol, but all that came out was another baby's cry.

"_I'm a baby?" Sam thought. "Oh, boy…"_

_Bloomington, Indiana, October 20__th__, 1973_

"Here, give him to me." A woman took him into her arms. As she looked down Sam could see that she was young, barely out of her teens. Unlike the man's, her face was kind and her voice gentle. "There, there, Mommy will change you. It's all right; don't cry." Sam felt himself being lowered down onto a bean bag chair. A TV set to his right was broadcasting a news report: _"…The fury in Congress over President Nixon's executive dismissal of special prosecutor Archibald Cox continued to grow as numerous calls have been made for the President's impeachment…" _The screen showed crowds of people demonstrating outside the White House. Sam's POV shifted to the ceiling as the woman called Judy looked down at him with sympathetic eyes. Sam shifted uncomfortably as he felt his diaper being removed. "There you go…that's all better now, isn't it?"

"I've got to get to work," the man said, without sympathy. "I'll see you later tonight, okay?"

"Will that be before or after you and your buddies go to the bar for a few drinks?" Judy's tone was accusatory.

"Hey, that only happened a couple of times after we got married, and it was because I'd been working late and needed to unwind. It ain't my fault you weren't careful that night."

"Don't you dare make it sound like Joseph Junior was a mistake. He's our son!" Judy took a deep breath as she looked back at Sam. "I've got to feed him now…you'd better get going or you'll be late."

"Yeah, whatever." Sam could hear the man stomp out of the apartment they were in. He would have sighed with relief, but Judy stuck a bottle of warm baby formula in Sam's mouth. To his surprise, he actually liked it.

"I know it's hard, honey…but Joe's really a good man. He just…doesn't have a lot of experience with being a parent. I guess neither one of us does."

"Actually, she's got a pretty good handle on the situation." Al appeared overhead, fiddling with the hand link.

"Al, this is impossible…I'm an infant!" Sam only heard gurgling coming out of his mouth as Judy rocked him back and forth and sang "Mockingbird." The TV had been turned off and Sam could hear a cheap radio playing Dobie Grey's "Drift Away."

Al chuckled. "Sorry to disappoint you, kid-and I mean that in the nicest way-but you know how Leaping works. It doesn't really matter what age-or species-the Leapee is; you've got their physical aura." Al cocked an eyebrow. "On the bright side, you're as cute as the dickens, you son of a gun. Cootchie Cootchie coo!"

"Cut that out, Al!" Sam "Said" as the Observer tried to pinch Sam's cheeks with holographic fingers. Al felt relieved as Judy gently put him back in the crib. "Why am I here? And what about the real baby-is he okay?"

"Oh, he's fine. He's a real trooper-Tina and Verbena are taking turns watching him. It kind of reminds me when Beth and I had our first daughter. As for why you're here, Ziggy says that it's to…" Al frowned as he looked at the hand link. "Uh, Sam, this definitely is not good…Ziggy says that about an hour from now Judy is killed in a burglary attempt while her husband Joe is on his way to a bar-which is where he's really going. He turns around and comes back to apologize to her, but by then she's already dead and when the police show up they arrest him for the murder. He loses his son and his wife in one night and never recovers."

"How am I supposed to stop a burglar?" Sam protested. "I can't even walk!"

"Well I don't know, Sam. Maybe you could warn Judy somehow."

Sam thought furiously. "How much time do we have left before the robbery is supposed to take place?"

Al's eyes widened as he tapped at the hand link's keys. "Oh, my God…Sam, it's going down right now! Do something!"

Even as Al spoke, Sam could hear the sound of glass breaking in the kitchen, and then Judy's voice: "Who's there?" along with the sound of the apartment's hallway door opening at the same time.

"Sam, that's her husband!" Al looked frantically towards the kitchen. "What are we going to do?"

At that moment, Sam knew. He took a deep breath, and let out a piercing scream.

"Judy?" Sam heard Joe's voice as he forced the door open. "Hey! Who the hell are you…get away from my wife!" Sam heard the sounds of a struggle, saw a figure run past, and then heard footsteps running down the hallway.

Judy appeared overhead as she scooped him up into her arms, Joe at her side. "I'm so sorry," Joe said. "You were right; I was only thinking about myself. From now on I'll never leave the two of you alone again, ever."

"That was it, Sam, you changed their history." Al watched with satisfaction as Joe held Judy while they both looked down at him.

"You were right, Al-age doesn't matter. Only love does." Sam smiled up at "His" parents one last time. Then he Leaped.

THE END


End file.
